How to Run a Spellcheck in GitHub Actions

Typos in docs and identifiers slip past review; a spellcheck catches the obvious ones automatically.

Run codespell across the repo with an ignore list for intentional jargon so genuine typos fail the job.

Steps

• Install codespell with pip.
• Run it against the tree with a --skip list for vendored paths.
• Maintain an ignore-words file for domain terms it flags incorrectly.

Workflow

name: Spellcheck
on: [pull_request]
jobs:
  spell:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - uses: actions/setup-python@v5
        with:
          python-version: '3.12'
      - run: pip install codespell
      - run: codespell --skip='./node_modules,./dist,*.lock' --ignore-words=.codespellignore

Notes

• Keep .codespellignore short and reviewed, or it quietly hides real typos.
• On Latchkey managed runners spellcheck jobs run cheaper and self-heal if a runner dies.

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